As a materials producer, your goal is to serve your customers, build loyalty, and improve profit margins. The challenge is that some customers — typically small-to-mid-sized businesses (SMBs) — are inherently more difficult to serve because their needs are drastically different from larger companies. Although SMBs comprise as much as 30% of your market share, meeting their needs becomes more time-consuming, and therefore less profitable, so entire markets are served at a lower priority.

Although achieving 100% customer satisfaction is nearly impossible, no company wants to alienate 10-30% of its customers. At the very real cost of losing business year over year, it’s extremely common for materials producers to focus on growing the most strategically profitable accounts. When any group of customers has a much higher cost-per-order or sit in a highly fragmented market, serving them at a high level simply isn’t profitable:

SMBs require more technical expertise and assistance than larger businesses with technical SMEs on staff, which often puts a strain on producer sales and tech teams.

SMBs typically order much smaller quantities, which results in higher costs to fulfill across labor, packaging, and shipping.

SMBs often need more hand-holding and more customer service touches to finalize an order.

Choosing not to cater to SMB needs is not about not wanting their business, it’s simply a business decision about where to deploy resources for the greatest profitability. Unfortunately, that comes at the risk of losing customers and developing a poor reputation in the marketplace.

Because SMBs choose vendors based on their performance in four key categories, the solution to the dilemma lies in finding a way to serve their needs without burdening your sales and tech teams. When producers can deliver across these areas, SMBs reward them with increased customer loyalty — and they share their experiences with their colleagues and their competitors. 

Operational Reliability — SMBs expect producers to consistently meet essential operational expectations including product quality, availability, and reasonable order fulfillment timeframes.

Price — For SMBs, the bottom line is critical, so producers must provide high-value offerings that are competitively priced.

Business Acumen — SMBs value producers who offer support in the form of providing advice, business acumen, and insights into emerging trends and best practices.

Caring — Although caring is harder to quantify, SMBs place a high value on building relationships with people who care about their business, success, and customers.

Within these categories are 18 additional criteria that SMBs use to evaluate their vendor relationships. 

Our solution to the SMB dilemma is simple — we find a way to serve your SMB customers on your behalf the way you would if they were your top priority, leveraging industry-leading digital and technology-driven solutions to transform your direct-to-market strategy.

Better yet, we help materials producers increase market penetration across four key growth pillars:

Cross-selling to deepen market share within the existing client base.

Recovering historically lost business and dormant accounts.

Acquire new customers to drive growth in key markets or categories.

Leveraging digital solutions to engage new and existing customers and expand market share.

To learn more about how we can help your business unit expand market share in the materials or ingredients industry, contact mica.zuniga@xenonarc.com today.

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The SMB Market and How You Can Expand Your Market Shares Through It

After the last year, anyone who deigns to announce: “Digital is the way of the future!” will be met with an eye-roll and an incredulous “No kidding.” By now, everyone intimately knows that the pandemic forced the world to work remotely last year. Beyond that, we know businesses and consumers alike experienced a new version of what is possible for communications, e-commerce, and — when it comes down to it — managing the global supply chain.

Even pre-pandemic, a move to digital seemed inevitable, albeit “something we need to prioritize in the next 12-24 months.” Yet with 2020 online sales in the U.S. alone surpassing $791 billion and representing year-over-year growth of 32.4%, that inevitability is here. Yet, even if 2020 proved turbulent — to say the least, an earth-shattering move to digital doesn’t have to be disruptive to your business. 

Industries and companies that were already beginning to adopt digital saw far less disruption than those sent into the deep end with a sink or swim mentality. That’s because, when you think about it, digital just makes sense, particularly when you consider a global supply chain with multiple touches and moving parts. 

Anyone already on the leading edge of e-commerce — that is, directly connecting buyers to the products they need without needing to connect one-on-one with a sales rep — had a leg up on companies with more complex ordering processes. Add in the knowledge of existing pipeline opportunities, purchasing trends, and real-time forecasts — those companies were unstoppable.

What better way to get products into the hands of buyers than making it easier than ever for them to purchase and automating order fulfillment to deliver in record speed with less room for inefficiencies and human error? 

Imagine how much better you could serve your clients if you could adopt an Amazonesque model that came with instructions as simple as “Insert Tab A Into Slot B” to ensure a seamless experience. 

The reward potential is astronomical with potential cost savings and increases in sales, both in terms of millions of dollars. And yet, there are benefits like happier customers and a better market reputation that are difficult to quantify except for showing a potential market share increase of up to 30%.

Is There a Conflict Between the “Perfect World” and Reality?

Sure, increasing sales, lowering costs, and improving delivery time and efficiencies sounds incredible, especially when streamlining how you serve smaller customers who don’t order your products by the container-load. 

But, as a materials or ingredients producer, how do you ideate and implement these concepts AND retrain your entire global teams without changing everything about how you do business or alienating your most profitable accounts? 

When the alternative is continuing to do business the old way, “because this is the way you’ve always done it,” and seeing no change, digitizing to improve market share starts to sound pretty good despite the disruption potential. 

However, the idea that streamlining your supply chain and adopting an e-commerce model has to be disruptive is as outdated as the Pony Express. Better yet, it’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel. Xenon arc has a proven track record of improving and modernizing how materials and ingredients producers take products to market. By starting small, we focus on fine-tuning processes before extending the model to more markets and, eventually, more business units to ensure you serve all clients according to your brand standard. 

When your priority is to extend your brand promise to all customers, including those with the most complex and exceptional needs, it’s essential to serve them where they are — online. By transforming your direct-to-market strategy to digital, you no longer force small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) to jump through hoops created by larger customers’ processes — typically long lead times, complex payment terms, and high minimum quantities. 

Moreover, as a result of simplifying fragmented markets, in addition to securing SMB loyalty, by listening to their needs, you might be surprised at just how much innovation they generate for your company. And perhaps even more surprising is how many of your larger customers express interest in jumping aboard the digital train. 

Ready to learn more about how Xenon arc can help you leapfrog your competitors to adopt digital and e-Commerce practices and capture a greater market share? Contact Mica Zuniga today at mica.zuniga@xenonarc.com.  

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Learn How to Minimize Disruption When Going Digital 

Like most big businesses, when chemical producers talk about growth, they’re usually talking about expanding market share by selling to more customers or even finding new markets. Simple math, right? More customers = more money. The thing is that finding new customers, while extremely important, also takes a lot of work. 

And, by putting the entire focus on new, new, new, many producers ignore the fact that they already have a really great market — people who are already customers and can probably benefit from other product lines. 

Companies don’t have to pound pavement to find these customers because they’re already in the proverbial rolodex. 

This method of cross-selling is insanely valuable to businesses who want to deepen their reach with their existing customer base.

It’s the Next Logical Step for Most Companies 

The normal customer journey looks something like this:

Customers find and vet a company who sells what they need. When that company delivers — and delivers well —  they’re glad to come back, and better yet, find more ways to work together. Sometimes this means buying more products, while others, it means finding new opportunities. 

This is true for most business units, because everyone loves having a trusted partner who prioritizes customer needs and looks out for them. 

However, it’s especially true for small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) because they typically don’t have a full-time purchasing team whose sole role it is to vet new vendors. This means it’s WAY more convenient to stick with a company they already trust. 

So companies making a real effort to expand sales within an already warm customer base frequently see significant growth and ROI more quickly in their existing market than they do within new markets.

Sustained success in cross-selling hinges entirely on building trust. Unfortunately, it’s an area where lots of manufacturers and producers fall short, especially when it comes to the SMBs in their customer base who place nearly as much value on the relationship as they do on value and quality.

SMBs have exceptional needs compared with larger customers with:

As a result, chemical producers place higher focus on serving customers that are more profitable which can mean longer wait times and high frustration levels for SMBs and other highly fragmented markets.

Curious about the 18 things customers value most when finding and evaluating new vendors? 

Innovating to Build Trust and Cross-Sell Effectively

By now, it’s obvious that current norms in the chemical industry leave plenty of room for improvement — in terms of process and profit. And the answer lies in transforming the way producers bring products to the market to extend their brand promise to ALL customers.

This means some combination of speeding up order times, improving customer service, and lowering minimum order quantities. It’s a tall order for the way lots of chemical producers do business. And that’s where Xenon arc comes in.

Our game-changing model that uses emerging technologies to simplify the global supply chain and improve the experience for all customers. The results are transformational and frequently lead to innovations across entire business units for our producer clients.

In addition to increasing operational efficiency and overall profitability for our clients, our model delivers greater brand loyalty among their customers with exceptional needs. And these customers? They account for as much as 30% of the market. 

The way producers serve their core market segments — those who order a single product housed at a single warehouse by the truckload — may not change all that much. But then, it doesn’t need to — those customers already enjoy high levels of service. Then again, the insights we deliver have the power to increase efficiency, innovation, and profitability even for these ideal customers.

The bottom line is this: “This is the way we’ve always done it,” does not apply in today’s world. And while it’s always important to find new sandboxes (markets) to play in, chemical producers cannot expect to achieve without finding new product-market fits for their existing customer base. 

To learn more about how Xenon arc delivers an improved experience for non-core customers of chemical producers, contact Mica Zuniga at mica.zuniga@xenonarc.com. 

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Effectively Cross Sell Your Products to Fragmented Markets

There’s a difference between fads and transformations. Fads wax and wane relatively quickly — whereas transformations leave a lasting mark. The digital revolution is the latter. Although the pandemic rapidly accelerated digital adoption, the writing has been on the wall for decades. Digital is here to stay, and even more than that, it’s the new reality for the chemical and manufacturing industry despite our industry’s hesitance and often outright unwillingness to adopt new technologies. 

However, the companies that are willing to take a hard look at what’s possible are the ones that get to do more than simple want a bigger slice of the market share pie. Those are the companies that will come out on top as we emerge from the pandemic and the increasingly global supply chain.

Humanity has a history of leaving behind ancient history. Sure, we study it, we marvel at the way our predecessors did things — but for our trajectory for thousands of years has been a constant search to find better, more efficient technologies. Groups that refuse to join the forward motion get left in the dust.

If it hadn’t been for that meteor, who knows what would have happened to the dinosaurs — maybe they’d be walking, talking, and inventing today. Hard to say. Yet some in our industry resemble those giant lizards today — stuck in the mud and unable to adopt the latest technologies. 

Trust me when I say — you don’t want to become a dinosaur, relegated to history, especially with the long, storied history of many of the companies in this industry.

The thing about transformations and revolutions is that they change everything — and if you’re used to doing things a certain way, accepting and implementing those changes can be uncomfortable. However, it’s better to get a little uncomfortable now than to find your role — and your market share — buried and forgotten, a fossilized relic for the history books. 

So What Does Digital Adoption Look Like?  

No one can predict the future. However, looking to the past, we can say with certainty that anyone willing to rest on their laurels and find comfort in “the way we’ve always done it” will get left behind.

Digital adoption is unique in our industry because in many cases it’s the more fragmented accounts that drive innovation. It makes sense if you think about it — the markets with the most room for improvement are the ones where we’ll concentrate hardest on growth. And more importantly, they’re where we’ll see the biggest shifts — whether in product-market fit, innovative business process, or increasing profitability. 

All business units can learn lessons from streamlining and simplifying fragmented markets because digital adoption means so much more than virtual meetings:

The last thing producers in the materials industry want is to have increasing amounts of their market share carved away. And that’s where Xenon arc’s groundbreaking model comes in. We draw on a triple threat of industry knowledge, technological expertise, and digital experience to keep our clients ahead of the competition and improve the way they bring products to market. 

After all, we’re driving this train — and the conductor’s shouting “ALL ABOARD!” Will you join us? Or get left behind?

To learn more, contact Mica Zuniga at mica.zuniga@xenonarc.com. 

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There Is A (Digital) Transformation Happening In Our Industry, You Are Either Onboard Or You’ll Be Left Behind

New York, NY— 2 January, 2020 — The Women’s Global Leadership Initiative (WGLI), in conjunction with Xenon arc, is pleased to present “Customer Intimacy: The Intersection of Channel & Digitization,” a panel exploring the impact of the digital transformation on customer intimacy and go-to-market strategies. This panel brings together influential female leaders who continue to shape their respective industries through innovative customer, channel, and digitization solutions.

This panel will focus on the challenges and opportunities with managing channel strategy and how digitization is helping enhance customer intimacy while retaining brand and brand integrity. The speakers will address how women can effectively position themselves at the center of this dynamic and growing transformation.  

“Channel, Digitization, eCommerce, Customer Experience – these are truly the hot topics in materials industry right now,” said Mica Zuniga, Xenon arc’s Vice President of Strategic Growth,“ It’s a privilege to engage with other female leaders about such cutting-edge subjects, so I’m personally excited about the opportunity to lead a discussion with these esteemed panelists and attendees, and am proud to support the WGLI in its mission to empower female leaders.”

“The WGLI thrives on the engagement and support of female leaders across all industries to help us pursue our mission of educating and training women around the globe to become the successful leaders they were born to be.” Said Diana Ruiz, CEO of WGLI, “We are thrilled to host this event and bring a whole new group of women into the conversation”. 

“Customer Intimacy: The Intersection of Channel & Digitization,” presented by WGLI, will take place on Thursday, January 16th, 2020 from 2:00- 6:30 PM. The panel will be followed by a cocktail reception with an opportunity to network with various women leaders. Entrance fee is $50 with all proceeds donated to the Women’s Global Leadership Initiative. This event is generously hosted by Xenon arc with support provided in parts by New Stand and Owls Brew and all are welcome to attend!

To register for the event, click on the following link: 

Xenon arc and WGLI host a Panel Discussion on Customer Intimacy: The Intersection of Channel & Digitization

The small business dilemma is real. Collectively, the SMB represent almost one-third of your potential market. However, managing those accounts and fulfilling them is time-consuming and can take as much time and labor – if not more – than servicing the other 67 percent.

You’ve got a dilemma on your hands and there are two mutually exclusive options you can choose from.

It leaves you between a rock and a hard place. You don’t want to lose market share to your competitors, and you don’t want to be known as a company that ignores the little guy. However, if you don’t make tough choices, you stand the risk of alienating your shareholders and sullying your brand — which is the last thing you want to do.

In a perfect world, you’d serve all your clients equally.

Ideally, you would have practices in place that allowed you to forecast and fulfill the needs of your smaller customers, a way for them to order when and how it’s convenient for them, and technical teams on standby to answer their questions. In doing so, you would also become known as the best company to do business with.

However, the world is rarely perfect. And more likely than not, you haven’t found an effective business model that allows you to serve every client equally.

Because your company must be accountable to its shareholders, your management team finds itself having to make strategic decisions about the accounts you can serve. The sad truth is that many of these smaller businesses are no longer strategic because they often:

They feel the divide — and they know that they’re not a priority. It’s frustrating to them because they want to feel valued and have a true partner. 

How can you serve dozens of small customers the way you want to?

The answer is to consolidate those accounts into one by riding the digital revolution wave so that you can simplify communications and order fulfillment. And, this is where Xenon arc comes in. 

Our proprietary and innovative business model bridges the gap between the new digital world and the way you’ve always done business. With the use of technology, we enable you to extend your brand promise to every customer, regardless of how complicated it is to serve them.

We take on your most challenge markets and effectively turn dozens of accounts into one by transforming the way you serve your customers. Using a mix of new technologies including e-commerce and digital marketing, we’re able to forecast what your smaller customers need and warehouse it in a single location to deliver the high-touch experience they want. 

By taking title to top-selling products and reducing the minimum order quantity for your SMB customers, we save producers millions of dollars in labor and fulfillment costs. And your once hard-to-service customers stand up and take notice — and they show you their very real appreciation.

Please contact Mica Zuniga at mica.zuniga@xenonarc.com to learn how we can turn dozens of your most fragmented accounts into a single one.

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Turning Dozens of Accounts into One

HUNTSMAN TEXTILE EFFECTS PARTNERS WITH XENON ARC TO FORM NAVICOLOR

 Dedicated marketing channel to better serve the US market

Singapore Huntsman Textile Effects and Xenon arc today announced the formation of NaviColor, a dedicated marketing channel to service the unique needs of select customers in the United States textiles and apparel industry.

NaviColor is a business specifically designed to meet the needs of select Huntsman Textile Effects customers and to further expand the growing customer base. NaviColor features a dedicated team of professionals in a highly advanced technological environment to support customers utilizing Huntsman’s Textile Effects innovative chemicals, dyes and digital inks in the United States.

“NaviColor represents a significant investment in our customer experience and will help us enhance how we deliver value to our customers,” said Brook Swinston, Huntsman Textile Effects Commercial Director Americas. “Huntsman is a recognized global market leader and innovator in textile dyes, chemicals and digital inks. This approach enables us to be closer to our customers, deliver value and react with more agility.”

NaviColor is the latest deployment of Xenon arc’s innovative xa-Direct model that helps the world’s preeminent manufacturing companies reach, grow and more effectively service the needs of their customer base s. Leveraging its domain expertise of the marketplace, combined with extensive voice of the customer research and leading-edge technology platform, the xa-Direct model delivers enhanced customer intimacy, valuable insights and improved customer service levels.

“We are excited to partner with Huntsman Textile Effects,” commented Mica Zuniga, Vice President of Strategic Growth for Xenon arc. “Together, we have created a thoughtful and complete offering focused on delivering best-in-class service, and technical support to valued customers by representing Huntsman Textile Effect’s market-leading products.”

NaviColor will exclusively represent Huntsman Textile Effects product portfolio including:

Huntsman Corporation is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals with 2018 revenues of approximately $9 billion. Our chemical products number in the thousands and are sold worldwide to manufacturers serving a broad and diverse range of consumer and industrial end markets. We operate more than 75 manufacturing and R&D facilities in approximately 30 countries and employ approximately 10,000 associates within our 4 distinct business divisions. For more information about Huntsman, please visit the company's website at www.huntsman.com.

Huntsman Textile Effects is the leading global provider of high quality dyes, chemicals and digital inks to the textile and related industries. With operations in more than 90 countries and seven primary manufacturing facilities in six countries (China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Thailand), Huntsman Textile Effects is uniquely positioned to provide prompt and expert technical service wherever our custom ers are based. Sustainability, innovation and collaboration are at the heart of what we do. We use cutting edge technology to develop solutions and create innovative products with intelligent effects such as durable water repellents, color fastness, sun protection or state-of-the-art dyes which reduce water and energy consumption. For more information about Huntsman Textile Effects, please visit www.huntsman.com/textile_effects.

Established in 2010, Xenon arc is a data-driven marketing and sales company, focused on enhancing the way materials producers engage with their SMB customers and segments. Xenon arc’s xa-Direct model specializes in building private label, direct-to-market teams. With offices in the US, Europe, Mexico and Brazil, Xenon arc partners with producers looking to evolve, digitize, and enhance their go-to-market strategy. Xenon arc’s client list includes some of the most distinguished brands in the materials industry and is constantly expanding. For more information, visit www.xenonarc.com.

NaviColor is a newly dedicated platform operated by Xenon arc in collaboration with Huntsman Textile Effects specifically designed to meet the needs of select customers. NaviColor provides a highly responsive and industry focused service with flexibility in purchasing, more customized fulfilment, and a dedicated sales team with technical expertise. For more information, please visit www.navicolor.com.

Huntsman Textile Effects Partners with Xenon arc to form NaviColor

Call to action for materials producers to address often-overlooked customer segment

July 28, 2020 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

)--Xenon arc, a leading data-driven marketing and sales organization, announced the release of their 2020 Voice of Customer study, an in-depth investigation of small-to-mid-sized business customers (SMBs) in the Materials Industry – focusing on their experience, requirements and preferences. The study dives deep into defining the customer journey, from the development of a need all the way through to post-purchase support and reordering.

“One of the most surprising learnings for us was that SMB customers in the Materials Industry are among the most dissatisfied groups of customers that ERDM has ever encountered”

Xenon arc enlisted the services of ERDM, an award-winning Voice of Customer research firm, with over 35 years of experience in the field. ERDM has developed a specialized and proprietary VoC research methodology designed to capture the real words, real emotions and human insights to drive the most effective strategies to transform how companies engage with their customers.

“One of the most surprising learnings for us was that SMB customers in the Materials Industry are among the most dissatisfied groups of customers that ERDM has ever encountered,” said Mica Zuniga, Vice President, Strategic Growth, “This represents not only an urgent problem, but also a huge opportunity for producers to transform their thinking around how to serve these customers.”

In almost 150 hours of interview, the research uncovered meaningful and actionable insights related to the following topics:

The research outlines a specific and clear path toward creating “win-win” scenarios for both SMB customers and materials producers; for producers looking to drive growth and efficiency from this segment; and for customers looking to compete in an increasingly challenging environment.

“We’ve observed the long-standing challenges producers have faced in properly addressing the unique needs of this segment and are immediately applying and driving these findings into our innovative Xa-DIRECT model,” said Alyssa Cunnington, VP Exterprise Model. “We’ve always been SMB-focused, and this study further strengthens our insights and sharpens our strategy to best meet SMB needs,” she concluded.

Xenon arc will be making the results of the study available to interested parties. Please contact mica.zuniga@xenonarc.com.

Xenon arc Unveils Groundbreaking Voice of Customer Study Results Focused on Small-to-Mid Sized Business Customers

)--MacDermidConnect is pleased to announce the launch of MacDermidConnect.com an online commerce site designed to make it even easier for customers to purchase Alkemi™ by MacDermid Graphics Solutions screen printing products.

“Our Alkemi™ products have long been preferred by screen printers, and we fully support MacDermidConnect’s work to make the brand more visible and enhance the customer’s purchase experience”

 is the latest application deployment of directibility™, a technology platform developed by Xenon arc. The site leverages Xenon arc’s intimate knowledge of small-to-mid-sized business requirements supplemented by voice of the customer research, deep data analytics, and fundamental understanding of the customer journey to deliver value at each stage of the process.

Fully supported by a dedicated team of screen printing experts at MacDermidConnect, MacDermidConnect.com enhances the experience customers have with the Alkemi™ line of screen printing solutions. The new site provides new and existing Alkemi™ screen printing customers with the ability to shop for screen printing materials, receive live technical support, view order status and order history, track orders, view pricing and availability and download documents

“Our Alkemi™ products have long been preferred by screen printers, and we fully support MacDermidConnect’s work to make the brand more visible and enhance the customer’s purchase experience,” stated Brad Wills, Senior Vice President, MacDermid Graphics Solutions.

 features over 100 products across multiple applications, including textile, graphics, electronics and industrial applications in the following categories:

“The launch of the MacDermidConnect.com site ensures customers in the United States, Canada and EMEA regions, can shop across multiple channels and touch points while receiving personalized support at their convenience,” commented Mica Zuniga, Vice President of Strategic Growth Initiatives at Xenon arc. “This site is further illustration of their long-standing commitment to innovation and service in terms of product and go-to-market strategies.”

MacDermidConnect Streamlines and Expedites Screen Printers’ Customer Experience With the Launch MacDermidConnect.com a New Online Commerce Site

)--DuPont Water Solutions, in partnership with Xenon arc’s DWS Advantage, is excited to announce the launch of directibility™, a new online commerce solution at 

. This industry-leading platform provides quick and simple access to DuPont Water Solutions’ multi-technology portfolio. Trusted by millions, DuPont Water Solutions ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and ion exchange resin technologies have led the water treatment industry for quality, reliability, and safety for over 70 years.

“We are excited to give our customers additional options to learn about and purchase our industry-leading products through the launch of directibility™”

Built by Xenon arc, directibility™ is designed to provide another way for customers to have direct access to products while still receiving personalized support from the DWS Advantage team. By investing in the customer experience and building lasting relationships, directibility™ is a new channel to gain greater access to DuPont products.

“We are excited to give our customers additional options to learn about and purchase our industry-leading products through the launch of directibility™,” said Peter Ingarra, Americas Commercial Director. “Our goal for the DuPont Water Solutions business is to continue to make it easier for our customers and channel partners to access our product portfolio, and look forward to creating new ways to connect and service all of our customer segments.”

The upgraded site provides a wide array of options including easier access to product discovery, purchasing, product research, technical support through online chat, order history and documents, all in one place. Signup is free and includes access to DWS Advantage’s full product portfolio of over 250 products that services industrial, commercial, municipal, pharmaceutical and residential markets: Amber Series, FilmTec™, FortiLife™, inge® Dizzer™, Ligasep™, TapTec™, and IntegraFlux™.

“The launch of directibility™ for DuPont Water Solutions is an exciting development for both Xenon arc and DWSAdvantage,” commented Mica Zuniga, Senior Vice President of Strategic Growth Initiatives at Xenon arc. “The expanded offering speaks to the quality and integrity of DuPont’s leading product portfolio and will enable us to further address the complex technical and service needs of select customers and distributors in North America.”

DuPont Water Solutions and Xenon arc Launch directibility™

Braskem Partnered with Xenon arc to Launch its New Online Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Sales Channel and Simplify Supply Chain Complexity

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Braskem (B3: BRKM3, BRKM5 and BRKM6;NYSE: BAK; LATIBEX: XBRK) ("Company"), the largest polyolefins producer in the Americas, as well as a market leader and pioneer producer of biopolymers on an industrial scale, and Xenon arc partnered to launch Braskem's first-ever consumer-facing e-commerce marketplace on Amazon. Through the partnership Xenon arc is providing Braskem data-driven marketing and sales platform technologies focused on enhancing the way Braskem engages online with its small-to-mid-sized clients. Braskem's new Amazon online storefront features Braskem's polypropylene (PP) filaments for 3D printing in 1.75 mm and 2.85 mm diameters, as well as their award-winning carbon fiber reinforced polypropylene (PP) filament, made from 100% recycled carbon fiber.

Polypropylene is ideal for additive manufacturing based on its dimensional stability, impact strength, chemical resistance, durability to support living hinge capabilities as well as a lower density than other plastics making it up to 40% lighter than traditional PLA. These properties, combined with the recyclability of polypropylene, make it an attractive material for a wide range of 3D printing and additive manufacturing applications. 

Jason Vagnozzi, Braskem Commercial Director of Additive Manufacturing, stated, "We are continuously looking for new ways to make our materials more accessible to consumers and small enterprise clients. Through our partnership with Xenon arc, we have built a new e-commerce channel that overcomes some of the supply chain complexities that larger commodity producers face when trying to directly reach consumers. Amazon will allow us to better serve smaller makerspaces, hobbyists, and educational institutions that would benefit from our polypropylene innovations."

"Braskem is transforming the way they connect with customers, and we are excited to expand our partnership to the Amazon platform. Using our unique approach to marketplace management, we will generate profitable growth in a sustainable manner," stated Mica Zuniga, Senior Vice President, Strategic Growth.

Braskem filaments are designed with the end user in mind, making them a great choice for rapid prototyping, custom product design, lightweighting, optimizing geometries, and designing spare parts. Braskem filaments are available in both 1.75 mm and 2.85 mm diameters to fit a wide range of printer applications. To learn more about Braskem's expanding portfolio for 3D printing and additive manufacturing, visit https://www.braskem.com/usa/3d-printing.

Braskem Launches Amazon E-Commerce Store to Make Polypropylene Filaments for 3D Printing Accessible to Consumers

Global supply chain woes have forced manufacturers and retailers to operate in survival mode. Meanwhile, their customers are using this frustrating lull to reexamine their own needs. 

There were some hard choices to make when the upheaval began. Suppliers were forced to focus on what they could do “right here, right now.” The long-term result was poor planning, inconsistent communication, and ultimately, the alienation of customers.

It’s time to refocus from a survival strategy to one of sustainability and growth. The supply chain will stabilize, the workforce will return and businesses will reopen, but things won’t be back to “normal.” Customers want and need more from suppliers, and will flock to those who are providing the best communication and buying experience.

Build sustainable customer relations now by refocusing the lens. Start with clear messaging that allows customers to plan and implement omnichannel options for e-commerce purchasing.

Predictions are that supply chain stabilization will happen like a flipped switch, opening the flow of product. But will demand for goods still be there when that happens?

Customer behavior continues to evolve toward the need for transparent messaging and omnichannel methods for retailing. Sellers must act now to reengage customers with digital tools, omnichannel offerings and remote sales forces, or be left behind by those that do.

Suppliers need to look ahead and ask: How are we going to go to market? How are we going to build a foundation for growth out of the ashes? How will we catch and keep customers when the supply chain resolves?

Most importantly, if they aren’t in communication with their customers now, how do you know whether those customers remain with them, or have turned to the competition? And how much do those lost customers cost?

The decision to focus on the most impactful and profitable customers is a good one for the immediate situation, but the tradeoff is sending a message to others going without supply: You don’t matter to us, and you never did.

So how can companies repair customer relations today? It begins with remote customer engagement and the implementation or updating of digital tools, as part of a larger effort to reengage lost customers and plan to attract new ones. Steps to take include:

It’s not too late to win back customers and strategize ways to win new ones after the supply chain resolves. If you can recognize the issues, you can work to fix them. Heal your soured customer relations with open communications. Invest in the technology and talent that customers need and want from you. Earn back their trust to win back their loyalty. 

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Repairing Customer Relations After the Supply Chain Crisis

As part of Solutions Review’s Premium Content Series—a collection of contributed columns written by industry experts in maturing software categories—Mica Zuniga, the Chief Strategy Officer at Xenon Arc, explains how the secret to better customer intimacy is in the data.

Data and customer intimacy; how do the gathering numbers, actions, and trends relate to successful customer relationships? Here’s how: one cannot happen without the other. The correct data used effectively results in customer intimacy. The key is knowing the “right” data to gather, to focus on, or to use in decision-making—and using it in a way that ultimately builds and sustains a continued cycle of customer loyalty and growth. It’s not a new concept, but it’s one that organizations seem to grapple with.

Creating intimacy with customers is more than sending birthday wishes or rehashing the latest sports news over lunch. While this is great for learning who the customers are, it doesn’t tell you what they need from you. Authentic customer intimacy results from leveraging extensive customer data and operational flexibility by tailoring goods or services to targeted consumers. It’s making service models scalable, enhancing the ability to make data-driven decisions, and having a deep understanding of customers’ needs and wants and how they use products.

In short, you know what the customer wants, how they want to get it, and whenever they need it—all by using data. And importantly, consider the data with a people-first, not number-first, mindset. How can you use this data to deliver exactly what the customers want and need?

Supply Chain Woes Shouldn’t Hinder Delivery of Superior Customer Experiences 

Delivering a service or product can be challenging when nature, politics, or global logistics are in chaos. Companies can use data to tailor products and services precisely to customer applications. For example, as the manufacturing sector fully embraces digitalization, there are more and more new sources of data to learn about how customers use your products. You can quickly and accurately use that data to identify critical trends and tailor your offering to target segments, applications, or individual customers. 

Communications can be personalized and tailored to keep customers notified about what they need to know to inform their buying strategies better, expand their awareness of your product and service offering, and create a “stickiness” that will help you both weather challenging times.

In 2005, Bain & Company found that 80 percent of firms believed they delivered a “superior experience” to their customers—but only 8 percent of customers felt companies were delivering. Almost 20 years later, the customer experience is still lacking. According to Siegel+Gale, $402 billion each year is left on the table by companies that fail to provide basic experiences to their consumers. Not a new problem, but there are new solutions.

The Science of Holistic Customer Relationships

Good customer relationships on any scale are challenging to build. In a rapidly evolving digital-first world, how do you know how to adjust offerings to keep up with customer needs? How do you build intimacy when customers engage in a variety of ways?

By gathering data that gives deep and actionable insights, you understand buying preferences and how products or services will be used—and ultimately, use that data to drive innovation and improvement. When you leverage industry-leading technology, expertise, and processes to create holistic customer relationships, you improve your ability to maintain a competitive edge. Clients with complete access to comprehensive analytics via a business intelligence engine unlock relevant, real-time visibility into customer behavior, transaction and SKU-level views, forecasting and pricing insights, business performance metrics, and more. In essence, all of this customer information is used to tailor formulations and services specifically to customer needs—and that intimacy is a critical part of differentiating one company from the competition.

The Difference is Data When it Comes to Customer Loyalty

The ultimate customer intimacy model continually reshapes offerings using robust data environments’ insights. It uses that customer data to refine the understanding of how products are used in the field, what type of value customers find in the products, the ROI on marketing and sales efforts, collateral development, and web analytics. The resulting customer intimacy organically creates a base of loyal advocates and continued growth.

The modern digital market requires data to drive innovation and decision-making and build successful customer relationships. That data is the key to intimately knowing what they want, how they want to purchase it, and how they will use it—and continue to stay loyal to the companies that give them exactly what they need when they need it.    

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Data is the Untapped Source Needed for Successful Customer Intimacy

Mica has held several leadership roles in business development, sales, and marketing in the chemical industry. She has a strong passion for leading teams, creating meaningful change and advanced thinking related to increasing value from typically under-served markets. Consistently recognized for her contribution to her clients’ success, Mica has helped improve profitability and drive exceptional value within these segments.

After working in product portfolio leadership and management with some of the most recognizable brands in the chemical industry, Mica decided to shift her focus toward innovating within the SMB space and joined Xenon Arc in early 2011. As one of the first team members, Mica has helped the company evolve its mission and model during her tenure.

Xenon arc’s unique and paradigm-shifting model is changing how producers think about their non-traditional customers, markets and activities, helping them create and extract more value across their entire customer and product portfolio.

Mica is a graduate of University of Washington, with a degree in English Literature. She’s a mother of two great kids, loves road trips, live music and exploring the Pacific Northwest.  She’s also a passionate advocate for women in leadership, sitting on the board for the Women’s Global Leadership Initiative since 2017. 

Mica Zuniga

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Articles by Mica Zuniga